


All That Matters.

by Northern_Lady



Category: The Gifted (TV 2017), X-Men (Alternate Timeline Movies), X-Men (Movieverse)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Family Feels, Father-Daughter Relationship, Feels, Fluff, Hugs, Mutant Powers, Sappy, mutant torture/experiment, previous neglect
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-02
Updated: 2020-08-02
Packaged: 2021-03-05 22:07:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,497
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25672537
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Northern_Lady/pseuds/Northern_Lady
Summary: Erik’s ten year old daughter Lorna is brought to him unexpectedly at Genosha and he has to adjust to a new kind of life. One shot.
Relationships: Lorna Dane & Erik Lehnsherr
Comments: 3
Kudos: 18





	All That Matters.

**Author's Note:**

> This takes place sometime prior to Dark Phoenix (1992) in the movie verse.

Erik knew that Victor Creed would return to the Brotherhood. No one could keep the man captive for long. If he had been missing for much longer Erik might have gone looking for him but he hadn’t been worried. Creed wasn’t someone he ever worried about. The man could take care of himself and his loyalty had always been unwavering. 

It surprised Erik a great deal when Creed returned to the island encampment of Genosha, not alone, but carrying an injured green haired girl. Erik left his boxcar home and went out into the yard to meet Creed. The girl he carried was not conscious. She was just a child, perhaps ten or at most twelve. 

“You’ve returned. Good.” Erik commented, “Where have you been? Who is this?” 

“I got picked up by Striker. Again. I reminded him I was done with him,” Creed explained. “She was there too. Her name is Lorna. Lorna Dane. 

Erik gave him a funny look. This was unlike Creed to aid anyone else in his own escape. “Bring her in, we’ll find the nurse.” 

Creed brought the girl and laid her out on the table as asked. 

“I take it she wasn’t the only other mutant Striker had captive there? What made you help this one escape?” Erik was curious if the beast of a man actually did have some compassion. 

“I heard them talking about her. They forget that I can hear through walls and all. I heard them say they had her because she’s like you. They said she was your daughter. I don’t know if it's true, only that she did have the same powers. Seemed stupid to leave her there.” 

Lorna? He’d heard that name before. Not in ten years since Suzane had told him he’d had a daughter, but he knew the name. Erik bit back his shock. “You were right of course, thank you,” he told Creed and let the man leave. 

Erik remained at her side while their resident nurse checked her over and then left her to wake on her own. In the course of an hour she did wake and she did so with a startled gasp. She tried to sit up and get a look at her surroundings but only succeeded in emitting a cry of pain. 

“Take it easy,” Erik raised a hand to calm her. “You’re safe here. This isn’t Striker’s Facility anymore. You’re with the Brotherhood now.” 

“Right. I remember Creed said we would come here,” she let herself lie back down. 

“He said your name was Lorna. My name is Erik. Erik Lensherr.” 

“I know who you are,” she said listlessly. 

“You do?” he asked. If she knew he was her father, she didn’t sound very happy about it. 

“Are you gonna send me back?” She asked, gazing at the ceiling as if she didn’t care one way or the other. Her tone however held the slightest hint of worry. 

“To your Aunt and Uncle? Not if you don’t want to go there,” he told her truthfully. He wouldn’t make her stay with him unless she wanted to be there either. 

“That’s weird. Suddenly you care about what I want,” she said with quiet sarcasm. 

“Lorna...it was never that I didn’t care. I was trying to keep you safe. I thought that being raised in a human family would keep you hidden from those who would hurt you, from people like Striker. I wasn’t aware you knew I existed or that you might have wanted to be here,” he tried to explain. “Your aunt and uncle weren’t supposed to tell you.” 

“They didn’t. I always knew I was a mutant though because of the green hair. They made me dye it brown like I was some sort of freak. They did tell me that my mutation came from my father but they wouldn’t tell me who he was so I started searching…” she angrily brushed away unwanted tears. “Then I figured out that my mom knew you and I had to ask my aunt about it. I went into the kitchen and every knife in the room, every pot and pan and scissors and the refrigerator...everything, all just came crashing into me. I spent three days in the hospital to heal from all the stab wounds and went home with broken bones. I didn’t ask any more questions about my father. I didn’t need to.” 

“I’m sorry,” he said, knowing it wouldn’t be enough. 

“I don’t need your apology,” she said, irritated, still not really looking at him. 

“Then what do you need from me?” He asked her. “If I can give it to you, I will.” 

She turned and looked at, really looked at him for the first time since she arrived. Her eyes were welling up with tears and there was tension pulling at all the metal around them as a result of her distress, a tension that she did not have full control over. “Will you let me stay?” 

Erik reached over and took her hand in his. “Of course you may stay. I had rather hoped you would.” 

She squeezed his hand firmly as she released the tension on the metal around them and the tears she had been holding back began to fall. Erik might have hugged her but the nurse had told him she had bruised ribs and he feared hurting her worse than she already was so he held her hand with both of his until her tears had ended. 

“How did you come to be captured by Striker?” he asked her once she had calmed herself. 

“His people picked me up six months ago when I was leaving school.” Lorna told him. 

“Six months? You were there for six months?” he could only imagine the experiments and pain and trauma she had been through in all that time. “Do you know what his plan for you was?” 

“Yes,” she said in a near whisper. “I don’t want to talk about it.” 

So there had been trauma. She confirmed it with her reaction. “You don’t have to. Not unless you are ready,” he told her. “I think we should get you something to eat,” Erik got up to head for the kitchen. 

“Wait?” she called after him. 

He turned back to see she had turned onto her side facing the door and had curled up as she was watching him leave. She looked genuinely frightened and he found that not only did he not want to leave her like this, he wanted to go back to Striker’s facility and kill everyone inside. They needed to pay for what they had done to his little girl. Creed had been right in bringing her back to him. He sometimes assumed the man was dumb because he was such a beast but in truth bringing back Lorna was one of the smartest things he had ever done. Creed had known that not only would Erik have done everything he could to kill Creed if he’d left her there, despite the man being impossible to kill, Erik would also authorize the Brotherhood to go back and destroy Striker once and for all after this. 

“I don’t need...I’m not hungry…” Lorna said. 

Erik realised in that moment that she would rather skip eating than let him go. He could see into the kitchen across the hall from where he stood so he used his powers to pick up various items and assemble a snack for her. He floated them into the room on a metal pie plate. Then he returned to sit at her side while she ate. Lorna ate quickly and drank a glass of water down. Then she curled herself up into a tighter ball than before, hugging her pillow. She looked exhausted. 

“I think it’s time you got some sleep,” he told her gently. 

Her eyes flew open. “I don’t want to sleep.” She was suddenly stiff and her breathing rate had quickened. 

“You’re afraid to sleep,” he said, understanding her problem right away. “I know what that’s like. I was afraid to sleep too after I left the concentration camps.”

“How did you do it?” she asked him. 

“I held onto my anger. I found some peace in the concept of revenge. There is no need for you to concern yourself with revenge. I will see to it that Striker and his people can never harm you or another mutant again,” he told her sincerely. 

“Creed said you would say that,” Lorna said. 

“Did he?” 

“Actually, he said he couldn’t leave me there or you’d kill him and then kill everyone who worked there, but if I did come with him you’d go back anyway and be rid of Striker for good.”

“He was right,” Erik admitted. “I don’t know if that knowledge helps you to sleep though.” 

“A little,” Lorna said uncomfortably. 

“What else can I do?” he asked, willing to help however he could. 

“If I can fall asleep, where will you be?” Lorna was trying not to sound worried but she didn’t entirely convince him. 

He let out a sigh. “I’m not going anywhere. I will sit right here until you are able to sleep and once you do, I won’t go far, only far enough to eat and check in with the others. You’ll be safe here. I swear it.” 

“Alright,” she nodded and then closed her eyes allowing the exhaustion to overtake her. 

Erik didn’t really leave her side for more than a few moments when he needed to. He stayed with her as much as possible, even sleeping in a chair in her room until morning when she finally woke again. She gasped again on waking up and Erik wondered if she always woke in fear or just since Striker had taken her. 

“It’s alright,” he reminded her. 

“You’re still here,” she said with both relief and surprise. 

“I told you I wouldn’t leave,” Erik reminded her. 

“Not ever?” 

“Not ever,” he confirmed. If that’s what she needed from him then that was what she would have. 

“Good,” she said biting her lip. 

Lorna sat up on the bed and struggled to get to her feet. She had bruised ribs and a sprained ankle and various cuts and bruises. Erik helped her to hobble as far as the bathroom door and passed her the bag of clothes that one of his people had found for her to wear. She emerged from the bathroom clean and wearing torn jeans and a band t-shirt. She didn’t head for the bed, she headed for the bedroom door. 

“What’s outside anyway?” she had made it almost to the door. “Can I go out there?” 

“We have gardens out there,” he said, taking her arm to help her out. “We grow our own food here.” 

Erik helped Lorna get as far as a bench outside and she was soon introduced to the rest of the Brotherhood. He was able to help with the gardening efforts while he was out there and after a while Lorna sat at the corner of a raised bed to assist with weeding. She finished that bed and hobbled on to the next one. By the time everyone was ready for lunch, Lorna had worked her way all the way to the end of the row of beds far away from any of the buildings. She had gotten to her feet and was attempting to make the walk back anyway with the use of a rake handle as a walking stick. 

“It’s too far,” Erik said, coming up alongside her. Let me carry you?” He was aware that he could have floated her back to the big dining room with less effort than carrying her. Probably with a little practice she could have floated herself. But the truth was, he hadn’t found an excuse to hug her since she arrived and she did seem to be feeling better than she had the previous night. Maybe now was the time. 

“I can just-“ she began but he picked her up before she could make her excuses. 

He had hardly taken a few steps before he felt her relax against him. She rested her head on his shoulder and closed her eyes. Once inside, he placed her on one of the benches alongside the long dining tables and sat with her for lunch. Lorna was quiet while they ate. Creed arrived late and sat down across from them. 

“Did it heal all the way?” She asked him. “The metal thing they impaled you with?” 

“Good as new,” Creed said. “Thanks for getting it out of me though. I’d have been stuck quite a while pinned down with that.” 

“No… thank you for getting me out of that place,” she said sincerely. 

Creed shook his head. “You don’t gotta thank me. And I didn’t do it just cause your father might have trapped me under a bus or something and cut my head off if I didn’t. Truth is, I could hear you in the cell next to mine. You’re a brave kid. If you ever needed help, I would do it again.” 

Lorna smiled a little. “If you ever get impaled by a metal object again, I will be there too.” 

After the meal, Lorna looked as if she were rather tired again. He picked her up and headed back towards her room. “Maybe you might need a nap. You are still healing after all.” Erik suggested. 

“I’m fine,” she said, shaking her head. 

He was almost sure that her reluctance to sleep was still based in fear. He could already feel her tension through the pull of all the metal in the room around them. 

“Lorna…” he said as he entered the room. “You are safe here. I promise you.” 

“Maybe,” she said but she balled the fabric of his t-shirt into her fist. 

Erik could feel a vibration in the metal around him. Her fear was only getting worse. “You don’t believe me?” he stopped just over the bed. 

“No, I do, I just…” 

“I can feel the metal vibrating all around us. It’s something I used to do in my youth if I was afraid or angry or stressed. I can’t blame you for not believing me though. I wasn’t there before.” he said sadly. 

“It’s not that, it’s just...don’t go,” Lorna said in a small voice. 

“I’m not leaving. I’ll just sit over there,” he leaned down to place her on the bed. 

“No, I mean don’t let go!” Lorna said more firmly than before. 

Erik felt metals in the distance snap from their places and come crashing in around them. He stopped them with his mind two feet away and pushed them to the ground with a loud clatter. 

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry...I’m sorry…” Lorna sobbed at her loss of control. 

Erik sat down on the bed with her in his lap. “Don’t ever be sorry for your powers,” he told her as he held her close. “Don’t ever be sorry.” 

Lorna said nothing to that, she simply curled up against him weeping. There was no more tension pulling at the metals around them anymore. All of that was gone. 

“I’m sorry, I almost hurt you,’ she said. 

“You couldn’t have. Not like that. I was in no danger,” he told her. “When was the last time you had a hug?” There was plenty of reason to be concerned about how she might have been raised. “Or are you just afraid from what happened with Striker?” 

“It’s both. My Aunt and Uncle had kids of their own to hug. I think maybe they included me on birthdays sometimes… the rest of the time I was the freak and my cousins were the good kids. They were good and I was the freak who had to dye her hair and didn’t follow the rules and my mom was dead and I didn’t know where you were and sometimes I hated you so much that I just tore apart warehouses and old rusty cars and garage doors and any metal junk I could find. They said I was destructive and I was always in detention….and other times I didn’t hate you at all, I was just alone…” 

“And for that I am more sorry than you can know. I thought you were safer where you were and I was wrong about that. I can never give you back what has been lost. I wish I could. I wish to God I could. I can give you my time now. I can give you hugs too if that’s what you need,” he offered. 

She nodded, sniffling back her tears as best she could. Erik just sat there and held onto her for as long as she needed him. It was a long while before her tears truly ended. She was exhausted from emotional strain and very nearly asleep in his arms. He bent down just enough to kiss her on the forehead and wondered for a moment when was the last time anyone did that for her at all. Mothers often kissed their babies but Lorna had lost her own mother at eight months old. Had she truly been all this time without any affection from anyone? It tore him apart to think that she probably had. No wonder she had been angry and destructive. That had been his fault. He truly had meant to keep her safe but had he known this would be the result he would have never left her at all. 

“That’s really sweet,” Emma Frost said from the doorway, dressed in white jeans and a white tank top, her usual colors. 

“Are you reading my mind again?” he asked her. She didn’t do that very often or if she did, she kept her opinions to herself. 

“I didn’t really need to. I mean look at you two. So much love all in one room that I’m a little concerned this space can’t fit any more. If a kitten wandered in, the room might explode.” Emma joked. 

“Very funny,” Erik was unamused. 

“I never said it was funny. I said it was sweet.” Emma stepped into the room and looked them over for a moment. “She’s asleep now. As an empath, I can tell she has had a difficult few days. So much anger and fear and loneliness coming from this one girl that I had to block her out to get through my day. You’re wondering if she has had any affection in her life? For her, those things came very rarely. That’s why she clings to you the way she does. She is a very powerful mutant girl who has never really known the love of a parent. She said they called her destructive. Imagine how much more destructive she could be if she were an adult in control of her powers?” 

“If you’re trying to say I should manipulate her-” 

“I’m trying to say you should love her, Erik, and make sure she knows she is loved. Because if you don’t, she might come back here someday and take that anger out on all of us,” Emma warned him. 

“I would have done that anyway even without your warning,” he said, a little offended. “But you know that. You can read minds.”

“But would you have said it? And said it again and again until that little girl has no reason to doubt it anymore and no reason to worry that her father might abandon her again?””

“She fears that?” 

“More than anything Striker could do to her, yes.”

“I will tell her,” Erik let Emma know. “And you will stay out of my head.” 

“Gladly,” she backed out of the room with a good natured smile. 

Lorna only slept for an hour so Erik remained sitting with her all that time. He felt her contented sigh as she opened her eyes and found he was still with her. 

“You’re awake,” he commented with half a smile. 

“You stayed with me?” 

“Of course I did. You didn’t want me to leave and I had to stay and tonight I will tell you something important,”

They continued their day as normally as possible. Lorna was left to rest in her room and she was okay with letting her father leave if he promised to come back and check on her every hour. Then it came time for bed and after she was changed and ready she had a question for him. 

“What did you want to tell me?” She was in bed and he was seated on the edge of her bed to tuck her in much like he had once done for Nina. 

“I want you to know that I love you.” He told her sincerely. 

Lorna let out a soft gasp but she said nothing to that. Even so he could feel her reaction in the metals all around them. This was different than her earlier tension. The metals were vibrating, contracting and expanding at a rapid rate. Lorna didn’t know how to react. 

“Are you alright?” He finally asked her. 

“Aunt Lisa always tucked in my cousins to bed at night in the next room and she told them goodnight and that she loved them and when she came to me she'd just say, goodnight little one. Sleep well. She wasn’t mean to me, she just never said…” 

“Not ever? Did anyone?” 

She shook her head, her jaw trembling. 

“Come here?” He reached for her and pulled her back into a hug. He couldn’t help it. “Your Aunt was wrong to treat you like she did. It’s not going to be like that for you anymore. There will be lots of hugs and I will tell you often how much I love you. I understand if it’s hard for you to believe that right now. I wasn’t there when I should have been there. I’m going to keep saying it all the same.” 

“You really thought I was safer with my aunt and uncle than with you?” She asked him. 

“I did. It is a mistake I will always regret. I hope someday you can forgive me.” 

He felt the vibrations in the metal come to an end as Lorna sobbed out one word in response to all of that. “Daddy…” 

It was enough for now that she had accepted him as her father. She was hurting a great deal and he didn’t expect she could instantly process all her trauma and forgive him. So for that night, he hugged her for a little while and he kissed her on the forehead and told her he loved her before she went to sleep. 

***  
At the end of her first week at Genosha, Lorna hobbled over to where Victor Creed sat alone in the dining room. Erik had been talking to Toad about improving the use of his powers and he became distracted by seeing Lorna approach Creed. Victor didn’t spend a lot of time with people and though he had agreed to help Lorna should she need it, that didn’t mean he wanted to spend time with her. 

She approached him carrying a box under her arm and she stood next to his table waiting for him to acknowledge her. 

“What’s up kid?” Creed said after a moment. 

“Wanna play checkers?” 

Erik tensed. If Creed said no, then that was fine by him but if he said no in a crude way that hurt Lorna’s feelings he was prepared to interfere. 

“Sure,” Creed said after a moment. “Why not?” 

After that the pair of them played checkers almost every afternoon. They didn’t talk really. They just silently played their game. 

Some days Erik was kept busy with the job of bringing in new mutants who needed shelter. While he made arrangements for these mutants, Lorna kept herself in proximity of Creed. He still didn’t know what had happened to them at that facility but whatever it was had forged an unlikely bond between them. At one point when a new mutant accidentally knocked over Lorna with his force field powers, Creed knocked the young man to the ground with an angry growl and threatened to kill him if he ever hurt her again. After that, no one dared harm Lorna, not even accidentally. 

***

After a month Lorna’s physical injuries were very nearly healed. Her emotional injuries were still a work in progress. Erik kept his promise and he all but showered her in love and affection as often as he could. Lorna was given gifts of new books and new clothes or whatever else she could want several times a week. Every night he tucked her in as he had said he would and sometimes by day he would give her a hug in passing. And though he was no empath, he quickly learned to read her emotional state by the tension in the metals around them and by the look on her face. If she needed someone to calm her fears or her anger he was always aware of it and would go to her. 

“She’s doing much better, isn’t she?” Erik asked Emma one day. 

“Does that question from you mean it’s okay if I read her mind?” Emma asked him. 

“I’m sure you already know her emotions without even trying.” 

“So do you now,” Emma said. “I gotta admit, I’m kinda impressed at how well you can interpret her emotions based on metals. If she ever learns to get control of her powers that isn’t gonna work anymore though.” 

“I know, that’s why I’m asking you as our resident therapist, how is she doing?” 

“Well, like you said, a lot better,” Emma agreed. “I don’t think she is nearly so scared that you’re gonna leave her. I think she knows now that you’re not going anywhere and that you do care about her.” 

“Then why hasn’t she…?” He didn’t finish the question. It was strange to ask it of her. 

Emma turned a little to face him, looking almost as if she felt sorry for him. “She does love you Erik. You are her entire world right now. She loves you more than she really knows how to say. Her reasons for not saying are buried very deep and if I tried to find out why she would probably realize I was in her head. It might be better if you just talk to her.” 

Erik tucked Lorna in that night and he just couldn’t bring himself to ask the question on his mind. She had been through enough. She would tell him when she was ready. 

***

Fall was fast approaching. Lorna had spent two months of summer at Genosha and soon Erik would need to make a decision about how she would be educated. There were a couple of qualified school teachers among their people and he considered asking them to work together and form a small school for the children of the Brotherhood. He could afford to send Lorna to the best private schools money could buy but he was almost sure she wouldn’t want to go. He didn’t really want her to go either. 

Late one afternoon as he got off the phone with one of his people who was in the process of bringing in new mutants, Erik passed by the library while Creed and Lorna were playing their game of checkers. 

“You tell him yet?” Creed asked her as they played. 

Erik stopped outside the door to listen. 

“No. I don’t know how.” 

“You need to figure it out,” he said gruffly. 

“Why do you care?” she said, angry and hurt. “You don’t even like him anyway.” 

“I never said that,” Creed said, more calmly this time. 

“You didn’t have to. You’re just about growling every time he comes near you. If you hate him that much why do you care what I tell him? And why are you even here?” Lorna asked, upset and confused. 

Creed didn’t reply to that with words, he instead made a sound almost like a growl. 

“Stop that!” Lorna told him firmly. “You’re not just some beast! I don’t care what Striker said. You’re not!”

“Everyone else believes I am. Everyone except for you, kid.”

“So that’s why you hate him?” Lorna asked. 

“I don’t hate your father. I wouldn’t live here if I did.”

“But you don’t like him?” she continued. 

“Can’t say that I do,” Creed admitted. “You can still respect someone you don’t like though.” 

“That’s why you want me to tell him, out of respect?” Lorna was more confused than before. 

“Hell no. It’s not for his sake at all. It’s for your own good. And mine.” 

“I don’t see how…”

“No, you don’t see. Your powers are different from mine. You’re not the one who has to smell the stench of everyone else’s fear. I smell your fear and I’m back there in Striker’s facility again. It’s not gonna stop until you get past this. You got two days. Two days. Tell him what happened there or else I’m gonna snap,” Creed threatened. 

“And do what?” Lorna shot back at him, equally angry. “You’re not gonna hurt me.” 

“You think I wouldn’t tear you apart?” 

“You tore apart twelve people to get me out of that place. Why bother with all that just to kill me too?”

“Maybe I just enjoy killing,” Creed said. 

“I think sometimes you do. But you don’t want to kill me. And I’m not saying anything about what happened.” 

Creed slammed his fist down on the table, knocking checkers everywhere. “You tell him or I will tell him myself!” With that he got up and left the library. He met Erik in the hallway and stopped to glare at him for a moment before continuing on. 

***

Two days passed by and Lorna never told Erik anything about what had happened while Striker had her captive. The next morning when Creed showed up in his office after breakfast, Erik knew why. 

“I know you heard my conversation with Lorna in the library the other day. I could smell you standing out there the whole time,” Creed began as he took a chair across from the desk where Erik sat. 

“And you’re going to tell me what happened with the two of you and Striker?” 

“Don’t,” Lorna said from the doorway. “Please don’t.” 

“I have to,” Creed told her almost kindly. “You can either stay or go wait in the garden but you’re not stopping me.” 

Lorna scowled and overturned a cup full of paperclips on Erik’s desk with the use of her powers. She flicked her hand and sent them flying at Creed like a swarm of killer bees. Erik ended the swarm as Lorna turned and left for the garden. 

“What happened, Creed?” Erik began, as soon as she was gone. He truly wanted to know. 

“I got there three months after she did. I was shot with a horse tranquilizer and wrapped up in chains and dragged to a plastic cell right next to hers. They had her in a control collar most of the time. A few times a day someone would come in and turn down the power settings and then just… mess with her to get her to activate her powers so they could study them.” 

“Mess with her how?” Erik dreaded to know the answer. 

“Well they couldn’t get her to activate her powers by asking nicely. Sometimes she could do it if they hurt her. They mostly just roughed her up a bit, punched her around, stuck her with pins, burned her with candles. It wasn’t the extreme sort of torture it could have been but it wasn’t good. It also wasn’t enough for what they wanted so they tried making her angry. They did that by trying to make her talk about her father. Every day became this routine of slapping her around forcing her to say something nice about her father, sometimes to say she missed him or she loved him. It was sick. It worked though. They were able to study what they wanted.” 

That was sick, Creed was right about that. Erik felt sick just thinking about it. No wonder she had difficulty saying so freely now. 

“Anyway, they were studying my healing rate while I was there. For the first eight weeks I was just stuck in a cell with a control collar watching Lorna get tortured. They’d come in and turn down the settings on my collar and maybe stab me or burn me and take cell samples. Hurt but it wasn’t that bad. Then ten weeks in, they removed the collar and impaled a metal rod from the ceiling of the cell to the floor, right through my collar bone and heart,” Creed explained. “I’ve been impaled before and usually I just pull the thing out. This time I couldn’t. The only way to get it out was to tear myself in half. Took two days but I did it. I think that poor kid was more upset by seeing what I did to myself than by anything they did to her. Anyway, as soon as I got free they dropped another metal rod through the ceiling and impaled me again. 

And Lorna, she begged me not to pull free again. I tried to tell her that it was the only way to escape but she insisted that it wasn’t. That there had to be another way and they were just gonna impale me again before I got clear of the cell. She was right. So I waited. Ten days I waited. A couple of times I felt that metal rod move when they turned her collar down. I knew what she was trying to do but she didn’t have the power to do it. So I told her that if we could get out, I would take her to see her father and I was pretty sure he would want to see her. Actually, I might have said that you’d probably kill anyone who hurt her. The next time they turned down her collar she found the strength to free me and to hold back the rest of the rods in the ceiling for long enough for me to get out of the cell. I broke her out and brought her back here.” 

“Killing twelve people in the process,” Erik commented. 

“Would have rather killed everyone but it was taking too long.” 

“I appreciate knowing all of this, and what you did for her, I truly do, but why insist on her telling me or on my knowing it?” Erik asked. 

“Because that kid does love you and she’s terrified to say it and I can smell her fear and when I do well…” Victor trailed off, suddenly uncomfortable. “Jimmy once tried to tell me that our ability to smell fear is meant to help protect people and I laughed at him. Truth is, I didn’t even know I had protective instincts but if I have to keep smelling her fear, I’m gonna kill someone and I don’t even know who I’m supposed to kill.” 

“You can start with William Striker,” Erik told him, meaning every word. He had only refrained from going after him thus far because he’d have to leave Lorna behind to do it. 

Creed only thought about it for a moment before he got to his feet. “I’m on it,” he said, making for the door. Then he stopped and turned back to Erik. “You’re gonna talk to her?” 

“I will but I don’t expect it will be as simple as a talk, not for either of you.” 

“What’s that supposed to mean?” 

“Talking to her may not ease her fears and it may not rid you of this protective instinct you want to be free of. In truth, I underestimated you and I’m glad to have been wrong in this case or Lorna might be dead. So you have my thanks and you have my loyalty as well. If you should ever become captured like that again, I will find you and free you myself.” 

“So what? We’re friends now?” Creed said, irritated. 

“If you want to be,” Erik offered. He would have as easily accepted yes as no. 

Creed only stared at him then took a step back. “I got someone to go kill,” the man said and he walked out. 

“Where is he going?” Lorna asked as she returned to the office. “Why is Creed leaving?” 

“He’s going after Striker.” 

“Alone?” she asked, worriedly. 

“He’ll be fine. If he doesn’t come back in a couple of days, I’ll go get him.” 

Lorna glanced worriedly out the door as if she were unsure of this plan and then let it go, approaching the desk instead. “What did he tell you?” 

“He told me what Striker did to you to make your powers activate, among other things,” Erik told her. 

She bit her lip and looked down at her feet. “I’m sorry.” 

Erik pushed his chair out away from his desk. “Come over here?” Lorna did as asked and accepted the hug he offered. “There’s nothing for you to be sorry for.”

“But I wanted to tell you before. I wanted to say it at bedtime like you do but I can’t…” 

“You don’t have to say anything. I’m almost sure that when you say goodnight Daddy, you actually mean something else entirely,” he told her. 

She nodded. “I do. I really do.” 

“Then that’s good enough for me.” 

***

Two days later Lorna marched into Erik’s office with a very angry look on her face. He could feel the metal straining all around them from her anger. 

“Why are you still here?” she asked him. 

“I’m working…?” he said, a little confused. 

“It’s been two days. Victor isn’t back yet. Are you gonna leave him there and let Striker impale him again?” Lorna asked, her eyes wide. 

“Right. Right, I’ll go look for him,” Erik headed for his room to grab a few things to bring with him. Lorna was waiting by the front door when he was ready to leave. “You’re staying here,” he told her, just in case she had any plans on going with him. “Emma will look out for you for now.” 

“I know, I just wanted to say goodbye and be careful and…” she trailed off, clearly worried that he was leaving despite being the one who insisted that he go. 

“I will be careful,” Erik hugged her. “Striker can not harm me.” 

She nodded in his hug and as he pulled away she grabbed onto his shirt. “Wait! One more thing. I love you.” 

Erik let the words sink in for a moment before he said them in return. Even after he left, her small voice was ringing in his ears with those words. The only words in his life that mattered.


End file.
